Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Irretrievable \Ir`re*triev"a*ble\, a. Not retrievable; irrecoverable; irreparable; as, an irretrievable loss.
Syn: Irremediable; incurable; irrecoverable.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. Not retrievable; irrecoverable; irreparable; as, an irretrievable loss.
WordNet
adj. impossible to recover or recoup or overcome; "an irretrievable loss"; "irretrievable errors in judgment" [syn: unretrievable]
Wikipedia
Irretrievable (, 1892, also known as Beyond Recall and No Way Back ) is one of realist Theodor Fontane's mature German novels. As with some other of Fontane's novels (including Effi Briest), its heroine is believed to be based roughly on a real person whose demise Fontane heard about, and it deals delicately with near taboo (at the time of writing) topics including adultery and suicide.
The novel has been translated twice into English. The first by Douglas Parmée in 1963 as Beyond Recall, it was re-published in 2011 by New York Review of Books as Irretrievable. In 2010 a new English translation, No Way Back, was published by Angel Classics (London). There also is a German made-for-TV movie (1968, director Falk Harnack).
As for translating this haunting novel into English, even deciding on a translation for the title presents many choices in English (irrecoverable, unrecoverable, irretrievable, unrepeatable, beyond recall, past retrieval, beyond retrieval and irreparable, just to name a few). The subtle word-plays and linguistic motifs which add to the power of its German text are challenging to render into English.
Usage examples of "irretrievable".
Bedlam, which, instead of introducing me to service, was an insurmountable objection to my character, I found myself destitute of all means of subsisting, unless I would condescend to live the infamous and wretched life of a courtezan, an expedient rendered palatable by the terrors of want, cooperating with the reflection of the irretrievable loss I had already sustained.
His heart began to pound in realtime, his eyes were fixed on screens flashing red, lines, and then dots, as those lines became hypothetical, and last of all a black screen, where POINT ERROR glowed in red letters like the irretrievable judgment of God.
I remember nothing of it apart from a recurring dread (it came at hourly intervals) that the drug had blanked more memory than I would ever recover, a sense of irretrievable loss akin to those dreams in which one searches futilely for the missing wallet, watch, prized possession, or sense of self.
Resting is good, but you can achieve as much rest beyond Aurigae's moons as you can a light-year out and not risk being irretrievable.
Palaeologus felt his danger, confessed his guilt, and deprecated his judge: the act was irretrievable.
Palaeologus felt his danger, confessed his guilt, and deprecated his judge: the act was irretrievable.
The handbooks were full of bungled night attacks, men firing on their comrades, whole battalions wandering off lost, irretrievable disaster.
The emotions that had driven her first to the edge of raging tears and then to the brink of irretrievable passion still seethed within her, but she was no longer on the breaking point of explosion.